1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital broadcast receiver configured to receive digital broadcast, and a method for receiving digital broadcast using the digital broadcast receiver.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, mobile digital broadcast receivers having a function to receive digital terrestrial broadcast, such as cellular phones and car navigation systems, have been in widespread use. In general, receivable channels are different from one area to another. For this reason, the mobile digital broadcast receiver may become unable to receive a currently receiving channel along with its movement.
To cope with the above problem, a technique is described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-100953, for example. A digital broadcast receiver of this technique includes a memory which stores therein station selection key numbers and multiple broadcast stations associated with each of the station selection keys. A controller performs receivabillty judgment and then rewrites the memory so that broadcast stations receivable in the judged area may be each associated with the corresponding station selection key with which broadcast stations in the same group are associated. Every time any of the station selection keys is pressed, the controller switches the broadcast station and service among the multiple broadcast stations and multiple services on the basis of information in the memory.
The conventional digital broadcast receiver described above, however, first detects receivable broadcast stations (i.e., channel scanning) and then associates the detected broadcast stations with station selection keys. Due to this configuration, the digital broadcast receiver cannot switch the channel and restart reception in area change until channel scanning is completed. Since the channel scanning requires certain amount of time, the broadcast is disconnected during this period. This is inconvenient for the user who would like uninterrupted viewing.
The present invention therefore has an object to provide a digital broadcast receiver and a method for receiving digital broadcast which allow broadcast reception to be restarted instantly when the digital broadcast receiver moves and the area changes.